


The Conversation

by starryeyedsea



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-16
Updated: 2009-11-16
Packaged: 2017-10-03 01:57:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedsea/pseuds/starryeyedsea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An exploration of the friendship between Kanna and Yugoda</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> Written for atla ladyfest over at livejournal

_"As a friend, do you love me?"_

* * *

Yugoda loved her homeland. To some people it could be cold or unfeeling, but despite the snow and the cold, this was home, and it was beautiful. And as a waterbender she felt finely in tune with everything around her.

She didn't mind that she learned it separately from the boys and that her skills were only for healing.

"Doesn't it bother you?" her friend, Kanna, asked.

"No, I don't like fighting, healing suits me just fine," Yugoda answered, "I would rather help people feel better."

Kanna didn't look convinced.

"It is just so unfair, what if you needed to defend yourself?" Kanna asked, "and shouldn't the boys learn how to heal too. The whole thing seems downright illogical."

"Waterbending isn't about fighting," Yugoda said and smiled knowingly. Kanna was not a waterbender and as such her understanding was a bit limited.

Kanna shrugged.

"I still think it makes no sense," she said, "I think you would be just as good as the guys."

It was then that Yugoda realized that Kanna was angry on her behalf

* * *

_"What kind of question is that?"_

* * *

Sometimes Yugoda and Kanna would sneak to watch the boys practice waterbending. Kanna would try to imitate the moves but Yugoda would just sit there and watch. She liked to admire the movement in their bodies (and of course laugh at Kanna messing up the movements).

"It looks so beautiful," Kanna said, "but I think when you waterbend it is even more amazing."

"I only ever practice on clay doll, Kanna," Yugoda said, "it is hardly like that." She waved to the boys.

"No, but they are all just often showing off, with you, there is a…" Kanna paused as if to find the words, "it makes me feel so serene."

Yugoda smiled. No one had ever told her that before in terms of her waterbending, they often didn't watch the girls at all.

* * *

_"I just wanted to make sure. Because I love you, you know that right?"_

* * *

Yugoda went and visited Kanna the day after her engagement was announced.

"Congratulations!" Yugoda said, and she was sincere in this, Kanna's fiancée was a proud man who was respected by the entire tribe.

Kanna didn't say anything, she was just sitting there and staring at the necklace.

"Aren't you going to put it on?" Yugoda asked, "I can help you."

"No, I don't need that," Kanna said, her voice was stiffer then Yugoda had ever heard it before.

"Are you not happy?" Yugoda asked, "were you expecting someone else."

"No it is nothing like that," Kanna said, "I just thought I would have more time."

"More time for what?" Yugoda asked.

"Nothing," Kanna said, "it doesn't matter anymore."

* * *

_"Of course I know that. We're friends"_

* * *

Weddings in the Water Tribe were not that ceremonial, there was just a meeting between fathers and the bride's father with the groom and that was all. The engagement time was used for the couple to be better acquainted, however there was no room for objection by the bride.

Yugoda noticed a definite slump in Kanna's walk, but her friend still put on a smile, they would still go in the early mornings to watch the boys waterbend. Yugoda tried to point out Pakku, Kanna's fiancée, as much as she could, hoping to draw some excitement from the girl.

"He is nice," Kanna said and for a moment she looked as if she was about to say something else but then stopped and went back to watching the students below.

"Well that is good," Yugoda replied, "your parents were very wise in accepting his offer."

Kanna could only nod and the two lapsed back into silence.

* * *

_"I just wanted you to know that, just in case…"_

* * *

It was the day before Kanna's wedding was going to be made official, it would be the last time her and Kanna made the trek to the practice grounds.

Kanna had seemed to regain some of her perkiness and cheerfulness and temper that Yugoda loved so much. 'It must have just been the fear of change,' Yugoda thought.

Kanna was looking freer then ever. And she commented on and on about the waterbending, and almost tripped when she tried one difficult move.

Yugoda just laughed.

She was so happy, this was her friend, the girl she knew. And then Yugoda remembered Kanna's engagement and she stopped. They couldn't be like this after tomorrow. Kanna would be married and it would be her husband who she was most tied too.

There would be no more watching of waterbending, or hiking on the outskirts of the city, or snuggling in the cold of winter and telling each other folk tales and ghost stories.

It would be different, it would almost be as if she losing a friend, and a dear one at that.

Kanna looked down at Yugoda and she must have noted the sudden change in Yugoda's behavior, and where Yugoda was more likely to let it slide and be private, Kanna jumped forward.

"What is wrong," Kanna asked.

"Everything is going to be different tomorrow," Yugoda said, and Kanna became quiet and she nodded.

"It is."

"We won't be able to do this anymore or anything…" Yugoda said.

"Yugoda…"

Yugoda looked at her friend.

"Do you love me?" Kanna asked.

* * *

_"Just in case what…?"_

_"If we never see each other again, if we can never do this again, please know that I love you and I want you to be happy, and I want you to wish the same for me. Can you promise me that? That you will be happy."_

* * *

The town was in an uproar the next day.

"Did you hear about Kanna?" Adine, a girl that was learning waterbending with Yugoda, asked her.

"Hear what?" Yugoda asked back, and she suddenly became worried. The conversation from the day before was still stuck in her mind.

"Kanna vanished!" Adine said.

Yugoda was silent, and became filled with fear. Had something happened to her friend.

"Yes, her family and Pakku's family is furious!"

"Wait, what…"

"Yeah, she left them a note, saying she was leaving and that she wasn't happy," Adine said.

Yugoda excused herself from the conversation and walked outside for a moment, and almost felt like crying.

'So that was what you meant,' Yugoda thought.

She looked out into the horizon.

"I just wish you would have asked me to go with you."

* * *

_Kanna looked out into the horizon. It had been years since she had come to the South Pole. It had taken years, but she had finally come to a place that she felt that she could call home and that allowed her the freedom that she had always desired._

_She still looked towards her old home. Her husband (one that she had chosen), Dinahi, came up and put a hand around shoulder and looked into the distance with her. _

_Kanna smiled and waved._

_"What are you waving at," he asked._

_"A friend," she replied, " a very dear friend."_


End file.
